Natural stone pen turning

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jeff enomoto

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I just got a piece of granite <I think?> countertop cutoff with the bullnose roundover from a co-worker. It is 3/4 inch thick +/- 1/16 inch and I'm pretty sure it would make a nice, albeit very heavy, cigar pen. I've turned a few pens, but never one of natural stone material. Can I trim this into pen blank sized material with a tile cutting saw (wet blade)? And the next question is how do you turn the thing from square to round?! I'm sure that I just don't use the roughing gouge and then whatever to finish it, since the hardness of the material probably would ruin my tools.

Anyone out there ever turn a natural stone pen, or have any very wise advice?
 
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My advise is do not turn granite. Softer stone like soap stone is okay but I think granite would not be a good choice. Just an opinion.
 
I've made some pens from pecan, which seems as hard as granite, but never from actual granite. Seems like a hard thing to do with woodturning equipment, but since I have never actually tried that would just be an opinion. [8D]
 
Check out my links page ! A guy there does stone tampers he works as a stone cutter as his real job you may be able to e mail him and get some help !! he is in Europe

http://affordablepipes.com/our_favorite_links.htm





http://affordablepipes.com/
 
Jeff,
I've turned some marble slimline and cigar pens.
I picked up some scrap granite
and cut it into 1" square then I tried to drill it.
A masonry bit does not work. Good luck with the stone.

Alan
 
Granite, being so hard it is often used as a definition of 'hard' might be a tough go. As suggested soapstone or limestone would be better choices. I have seen some attempt this with softer stone and there is a problem on the ends chipping instead of cutting smooth. You might want to consider the use of carbide tools.
 
If you make one of soapstone, just dont drop it. No, that's not a turn on the ol 'dont drop the soap' joke, I just mean that it'll probably break.
 
You might want to check out lapidary supplies from a place like :
http://www.lapidary-solutions.com/

I knew a guy who did a whole lot of this type of work and had quite an interesting shop setup with all sorts of diamond abrasive wheels and motors and pumps to feed the abrasives with some sort of a cooling/lubricating liquid.

He made things like this:

2006425161154_lapidary.jpg


I think he would put some of these spheres into his machines and would literally let them run for days and days to polish. I cant believe how smooth and perfect these this are....

So if you really want to do it, I think you need to get a lot more tools in the ole shop [:D]
 
Jeff I have made several pens from soapstone, alabaster and 1 from quartz. I have tried the granite marble and some others and the were very hard to drill and the normal tools and even the carbide tipped tools would not cut it. If you find a way please let me know how because I have a unlimited supply available. As far as carrying the pen and using it dont be afraid of using it. I had some people tell me that the would crack and haze and other stuff I made my first one about 2 months ago and carry it every day with no signs of wear. The pen has been dropped thrown to other people for use and tossed on the desk repeatedly. I have always made my pens for use and not show so if I cant use them then they are useless to me.
 
Originally posted by terrymiller
<br />Jeff I have made several pens from soapstone, alabaster and 1 from quartz. I have tried the granite marble and some others and the were very hard to drill and the normal tools and even the carbide tipped tools would not cut it. If you find a way please let me know how because I have a unlimited supply available. As far as carrying the pen and using it dont be afraid of using it. I had some people tell me that the would crack and haze and other stuff I made my first one about 2 months ago and carry it every day with no signs of wear. The pen has been dropped thrown to other people for use and tossed on the desk repeatedly. I have always made my pens for use and not show so if I cant use them then they are useless to me.
Click to expand...

Can you show us the quartz pen - did you turn it??
 
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